Alabama

Ready for some stiffer competition, Tide looks forward to South Alabama Classic

New shortstop Jared Reaves, a transfer from Southern Union Community College, leads Alabama with a .692 batting average (9-13) and a .765 on-base percentage. (UA photo)

TUSCALOOSA -- The first two opponents and the first four games were a warm-up for a rebuilding Alabama baseball team. Now the real season begins.

After a three-game sweep of Alcorn State and an 11-7 victory Tuesday over Alabama State, the Crimson Tide (4-0) plays three games this weekend in the South Alabama Classic.

"The competition certainly picks up," said Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard, whose team meets Southeastern Louisiana (3-1) at 1 p.m. today in Mobile. "It'll be a good weekend for us, and I think our squad's ready to perform at a high level."

"Our team's ready for that," Gaspard said. "This schedule was set up for these first four games at home with an opportunity to play a lot of guys. We were able to accomplish what we wanted to, but now it does get a little more serious. I think our players understand that, and they know it's about the execution."

Alabama has outscored its opposition 35-9 so far, but solid starting pitching has been the big story. In 21 1/3 innings, the starters have allowed 11 hits and one earned run with 28 strikeouts and two walks.

"Our starters are prepared to go a little deeper into the games," Gaspard said. "We've still got to establish who are going to be our bullpen guys in the back of those things. We've got a better idea today of where we're at than we did a week ago."

Hawley and Wolfe are competing for the role as the No. 3 starter, although one option Gaspard eventually could have would be to move Kilcrease back to the bullpen. He primarily was a relief pitcher for the Crimson Tide until late last season.

"It's going to come down prior to conference to which guy's pitching the best," Gaspard said of Hawley and Wolfe. "The good thing for us right now is if we don't use one or the other, we've got a solid Tuesday starter. We're four-deep right now with our starting rotation, and that's a nice problem to have when you've got two guys pitching well right now."

New shortstop Jared Reaves, a transfer from Southern Union Community College, leads Alabama with a .692 batting average. The Crimson Tide is hitting just .281, but its 25 drawn walks and nine hit batters equal the team's 34 hits.

"It's hard to get in a good offensive rhythm," Gaspard said. "In the first four games, we've seen pitching that we haven't seen. We're used to seeing our guys at 88-89-90 (mph) every day. Then we've seen a lot of soft stuff with big breaking balls.

"We really haven't been able to put together quality at-bats like we want to. Obviously, we realize this weekend that we've got to sharpen it up and get ready to go."